Alan Shearer believes the champions' past success should not be underestimated in the Premier League run-in

Manchester City’s past success in Premier League title races hands them a major advantage as they look to overhaul Liverpool at the top of the table.

So says Alan Shearer, looking ahead to the next six matches for Man City after they beat the leaders 2-1 to close the gap to four points.

"You'd think looking at the first two to three matches, that's not a bad run of fixtures to get some points," Shearer said of matches at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers, away to Huddersfield Town and then Newcastle United. "It gets tougher after that but the advantage they have is that they know how to get through this period.

"They've been in this period before. They know what to do and that makes a huge difference. As much as you try to play that down, as a lot of people will, experience counts for so much."

Manager role 'huge'

Shearer thinks Liverpool have a kinder run of fixtures to defend their lead with and see parallels between when he and Blackburn Rovers claimed their first title in 1994/95 and the role the manager can play in helping his team when under pressure.

"When you have been beaten it is not a bad fixture list to look forward, but the manager [Jurgen Klopp] will play a huge part in trying to take the pressure off his players.

"When we did it at Blackburn Kenny Dalglish was instrumental in getting us over the line. Because we had never been in that position. We'd never led and had Man Utd chasing us. In this case it will be Man City and Tottenham chasing Liverpool.

"I know he [Klopp] has been in that position with Dortmund but Liverpool is a bigger football club and the expectation at Liverpool is huge and the thirst to try to get this Premier League title is massive, so he is going to have to play a huge part over the coming months just to try to take the heat off his players, because there is no doubt about it, it [the heat] is going to happen."